Iranian players hold schoolbags in protest over slain girls

BELEK: Iran’s men’s national soccer team wore black armbands and held schoolbags as their anthem played ahead of a match in Turkiye on Friday, in what a team official said was a protest over the killing of schoolgirls on the first day of the Iran war.

Iran were playing a friendly against Nigeria in the Mediterranean resort town of Belek ahead of the World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada, at which their participation is in doubt due to the conflict.

The men lined up holding pink and purple bags with ribbons on them - a reference to the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh School that Tehran says killed more than 175 people, including children and teachers, on the first day of joint US-Israeli strikes on the country.